Suicidal Clock Chime
by Tallemy
Summary: It all started on an April day, but one murder became two, then three and by the time they realized the whole forest was filled with terror. It's up to the special police force, the Second Stage Protocol to find out the truth. - AU, character death, the rating WILL change-
1. Calm Beginning

[Prologue]

It all started sometimes in the beginning of April. First everyone thought wild dogs appeared in the forest attacking innocent people on their stroll. Even though their bites were unordinary as it seemed to be caused by the teeth of an omnivore rather than a carnivore.  
It was just an accident they said and the government claimed to find the culprit, but shooting down a stray dog in the woods. This calmed down the citizens, but only until the next murder. It was discovered by a pair who walked their dog in the area. The victim was a woman in her mid-twenties half of her neck was missing, never mentioning the insides what have been pulled out from the body.

Then a third and a fourth murder happened and the people once again got really nervous. The police closed down the area to prevent any further man-loss, thinking that this might scare the culprits away or stop them, but not soon after this another bod was found. This time it was a policeman.

Chief Todou decided to involve the Second Stage Protocol, or in short S.S.P. in the case. They were the elites of elites in both knowledge and fighting skills. Using them meant two things: the case had gotten serious, the murders will end soon.

The head of the department was Alpha. He was the only one Toudou could think of when they asked him to write a name list. Alpha executed all plan precisely while keeping everything under control. A strict but good leader for the special forces.

But right now, as he saw the reports he could only look at his assistant in disbelief.

"What's the meaning of this, Einamu? Are you sure ou brought the good documents?" asked Alpha with furrowed brows as he read through the papers he got about the autopsy. He hoped it would explain a few questions, but instead just made more and more.

It said the wounds came from humans.

And they had decaying tissues from other persons.

"I-I have no idea, Sir. Even Dr. Nata was surprised when he saw the bodies. He'd said the decomposition was different from regular corpses..." explained Einamu. He hated bringing bad news to his boss and more than one time he had the privilege to do so. Because whose back had to bear the hit of the invisible whip? Of course, the assistant's.

"Cannibals." stated Minaho who was sitting at his desk playing some kind of wicked card game with Manabe who seemed to over strategize his play.

"Seriously? Cannibals?" Fei leant back in his chair, sending scornful look at the duo. He was responsible for the radio contact in the squad and on one of his ear was always a part of the headphone, providing him the information about the current events. "Why would anyone ate a person? Especially at Raimon City."

"The biggest question is: why not? People can be weird sometimes and we all know that. Or have you forgotten about the man who thought he was the part of a dog pack? Have you?"

"That was a freak. Don't mix it with a serial killer."

"Killers." corrected Alpha. "According to the DNS tests the victims has saliva from different persons mixed with their blood and not every wound came from the same culprit. Their number is five to be exact."

"Sir, in my opinion this is the work of some kind of cult. We had several encounters with similar cases, and though they were not this atrocious, this might be a good lead for us."

"Still... I don't like the idea of man eating man... I hope the Bravo Team finds the culprits." sighed Fei looking at their boss hoping that he would get some kind of reassurement, but Alpha was lost in his thoughts.

"Right! Speaking of Bravo, is everything all right with them? You stopped narrating their moves a while ago." asked Manabe, drawing a card from his friend and putting down three with a triumphant smile. It seemed his strategy finally started working and a winning streak was on the horizon.

"Nothing. Last time I checked Hamano said they have to fly a half hour at best to reach the location, but ever since that the lines are mute." he said with a worried expression on his face.

"Fei, when was this exactly?"

The man looked at his notes, searching for his last date.

"It seems it was... 45 minutes ago."

"Call them again. They should be there by now."

For several minutes the whole room went silent and watched Fei's reactions. He hastily put both headphones on his ears and he seemed to listen carefully while he was pushing the buttons according to their frequency. How could he forget about his work? Especially at an important mission like this!

"Bravo, can you hear me?"

From the look on his face Fei was shocked and scared, more than scared and as he pulled out the plug from the radio device. From that action, everyone knew what they can expect.

Bravo team was in trouble.

The replies came with intense static and sometimes the lines seemed to suddenly end, then come back for a several seconds. Manabe was already facing his computer searching for the possible location of the helicopter.

"It's Hamano... From Bra-...We've been attacked by... can't asce-... ar—m… n-...ot huma-... every-he-"

"Hamano, answer me, what happened? Hamano?! Hamano!"

At the last word Fei lost the radio connection and the buzzing sound of empty static filled the room. He tried to connect it back, even hitting the device, but it seemed that the lines were cut off from Bravo's side.

"Hey, Fei what happened?" asked Minaho finally putting down the playing cards from his hand.  
"I have no idea. The connection was instable and suddenly I've lost them." he answered, voice shaking from nervousness.  
Alpha just looked at the commotion and tried to collect his thoughts once again. They sent team Bravo out because they thought the case didn't require experienced soldiers, but now that he thought about it was time to call together their best team.  
"Manabe, try to track down their location. The forest is big so they could be anywhere, but I have faith in you. Fei calm down, take deep breaths and don't get a panic attack. Listen carefully if they try contacting you. Einamu,call Saru and the other Alfa team members. They will head out in an hour."  
The countdown had started as everyone went to do his work and once again the office was filled with life.

**A/N: And this is the end of the prologue. Lately I've been playing too many survival horror games so I think this caused some kind of defect in my brain? I wish I could get my hands on a copy of Haunting Grounds though… The First team was called "Alfa" on purpose because it would be confusing since the names come from the official military numbering.**

**R&R perhaps? You know that I love those, right?**


	2. Still Safe

[Still Safe]

Saryuu was irritated that day. More than irritated, he was furious and as he entered their meeting room he just stormed through the room and almost swept away the papers, pens and other objects from the tables of his teammates. Today would've been his day-off what he was begging for since February, yet he had to wake up to the softly jingling voice of Einamu, saying that Bravo screwed up their mission and went lost in the forest? That's not his problem. Next to him Ibuki Munemasa, a newcomer in the Alfa team, seemed to be in a similar situation as he tried to connect his lips to his mug with a blank face. Saryuu could only read the word "coffee" from his expression as he yawned into the black drink. No wonder, since Ibuki pulled off an all-nighter right before their little meeting and a half day seemed to be ineffective for him to rest properly. Unlike Shindou, who was already vigilant and had thousands of plans to torture Ibuki for the rest of their mission.  
They _clashed moustaches_ on their first day, when Ibuki accidentally spilled his coffee on Shindou's report, then later he locked the brown haired strategist into the office for the whole night. This was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Shindou's hatred grew faster for the newbie than any mushroom and soon he was criticizing Ibuki's every move. When Saryuu asked Alpha several times to take out at least one of them from his team, but he always got a 'no' without any further reasoning.

It only took a few weeks of training but the captain had to admit that their rivalry was surprisingly helpful in the missions and he really needed a few people like Shindou and Ibuki after his combat medic, Kita Ichiban and the operations officer, Beta were both lone wolves and unpredictable. He couldn't say anything about their new weapon specialist as they hadn't got any missions together yet. He was there too, sitting somewhere in the back row. What was his name again? Something Zan. Well he couldn't care less. Because unless he proves to be useful he already had a one way ticket out of his team. Saryuu clearly told Alpha he doesn't want more mentally retarded members on his team.

"Is everyone here?" asked Einamu scanning through the room for any absentees as he entered with Alpha on his side. Only Hayami Tsurumasa was not present, because he was asked to do a final check on the helicopter before the Alfa team heads out. He was their pilot in charge but everyone wondered why he got the job in the first place.

After confirming the numbers, Einamu started writing down the names of the lost Bravo team members. Among them was Matsukaze Tenma a newcomer like Ibuki, Gamma, Kurama Norihito, Hayabusa Hideki, Sorano Aoi and at last, Tsurugi Kyousuke their captain.

"Just start already." complained Beta. "Mr. Boss, if this is so important we should start with the mission. You know some people don't have all day for useless cliché chitchats. We did this at least a hundreds of times since I joined S.S.P. Go there, kill-save everything, save the day. Piece of cake."

"Seriously Beta, can't you shut up for a moment?" Saryuu sent towards her an irritated stare with crossed hands. "Just listen to him and you can escape sooner or you can go away now, but I can assure you won't be on the same helicopter as we."

She puffed her cheeks like an angry blowfish, yet stayed silent. Saryuu was sure Beta wanted to counter in the meanest way she could but time had crucial importance right now. Every minute, every second gave her a bad feeling. A feeling, that something bad will happen in the span of those seconds.

No one heard about Bravo since the connections were cut off. Even if Fei steadily protected his seat in the office it was almost certain, they won't hear a word about them, unless they've found a working radio in the forest, what was, truth to be told, a hopeless situation.

"Okay Alpha, quickly grind down the summary about the mission so we can depart as soon as possible and stop Beta from blowing up." recommended Ibuki in his own way. It seemed the coffee finally had its effect on his watchfulness and he was back in action. After his comment a loud thud paired up with a hiss could be heard from the seat behind him.

"He is our boss, you idiot." whispered Shindou.

Alpha just watched them as they kept on fighting like children in a kindergarten throwing insults at each other. He waited until "_The Mom_" aka Kita stopped them.  
Sometimes he thought it was a mistake to give the captain rights to Evan as he was terrible at keeping the team together, neither controlling them. Kita would've been a better choice for this task.

Soon the atmosphere calmed down to a level where Alpha could speak to them. He left out the obvious facts, such as Bravo's disappearance and the serial killer part.

"We lost Bravo an hour ago, based on their destination and course they landed in the eastern part of the forest. The exact location is unknown and even Manabe couldn't figure it out, but I assume you won't have a problem with finding a helicopter. What has a bigger problem ratio is the forest itself, Bravo members could've wandered away from the helicopter which means you might have to explore the forest. My only order is, considering the current events; make sure you're never alone. Can you hear me Evan? Never. This means you can't go on solo missions because the team slows you down."

"Aye, aye, I won't. But I can't promise anything." he said half-seriously. Not the best way to convince Alpha, but he never intended to.

"Well then I think this rule doesn't apply to me." Zanark decided in the corner and let his voice to be heard.

"No, this applies to everyone in the team. The identity of the attackers is still unknown and losing another unit is out of question." said Alpha in the most serious tone he could voice "You'll meet with Hayami in a half hour; make sure you have everything prepared. This is all I wanted to stay."

The attending members slowly drifted out on the door, some of them continued their earlier discussions. Everyone, except one person. Beta was still standing next to her desk with clenched fists. Various emotions were present in her eyes as she tried to voice her thoughts. Anger and anxiety mixed with regret. All of this because of the same person.

"He will be alright." Alpha said without looking into her eyes.

"If he won't I will make sure he will regret the day when he choose Bravo over my team." she mumbled angrily, but a few seconds later Beta's expression changed and with a bright smile she said "Well third rate people should be in third are teams, right?"

"If you say so…"

They met exactly a half hour later on the roof. Hayami eagerly tried to pack together a whole weapon arsenal before their departure. Several pistols, guns were already in the vehicle but the grenade launcher was lying on the ground along with some smaller grenades.

"We're not going to a war, Hayami." Kita examined the pile before himself looking at the pilot questioningly. "Leave something for the police department too. Like that grenade launcher. I don't think we will need that."

"I-I-I just wanted to make sure" he stuttered throwing away the Colt he was holding. "That we are well prepared! Since people went missing and all of these murders happened it would be unfortunate if we ran out of ammunition."

"You have me here so we're already well prepared." said Saryuu throwing back the Colt. But as he was about to board the helicopter with a jump, he was shoved away by a strong arm.  
„You meant me, right, clown?  
"Ah yes, a brute like you perfectly fits my description of being well prepared for any situation. Now let me clear something, you're a new boy here and I'm your captain, Saryuu Evan or just SARU in short. My word is law and just like an emperor's and peasants you have to listen to my commands."  
He tried to show himself bigger than the weapon specialist, to show him who is the true ruler of this team but at his statement the new member, apparently called Zanark Avalonic pulled him closer by his collar, attacking his personal space. The grin on his face was filled with malice and contempt.  
"Then let me tell you one thing, emperors never have long lives."

**A/N: So here it is. The second chapter what was mostly and introduction about the Alfa team, though I still really wonder whether or not I should include an intermission chapter about Bravo. After all they will be important in the later chapters. Depending on that, the rating will change to M because Alfa team will find themselves in a dire situation. **

**A review perhaps would be nice uvu**


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